Sabres News

TIME TO RELOAD AGAINST PANTHERS

by
Kevin Snow
/ Buffalo Sabres

SUNRISE, FLA. – If the Buffalo Sabres hope to win consecutive road games for the first time since last March, their offense will need to get on track tonight against the Florida Panthers. (7:30 p.m., MSG)

The Sabres are 2-6-0 in their last eight games, and have scored just 12 goals – an average of just 1.5 per game. As good as Ryan Miller has been this season, you won’t win too many games averaging less than two goals a night.

Thomas Vanek (0+2) and Cody Hodgson (1+1) combined for four points in Tuesday’s 2-1 win in Tampa, but interim head coach Ron Rolston is well aware of the need for production from his team’s other three lines.

“Right now we’re looking for that secondary scoring. For a lot of teams that are that struggling, that’s been one of the issues,” Rolston said following today’s morning skate at the BB&T Center. “Obviously our first line and the power play have to be good because of that. Secondary scoring for us right now, we’re still trying to find the right chemistry and combinations to get that going.

“We’ve gotta be better offensively. We’re in a situation now where we are getting more puck possession, or at least quicker. And we’ve had some situations where we’re getting man advantages where we’re not executing the way we need to be offensively. We have to find more ways to create offense; we can’t afford to just be a rush team, and just rely on our power play, especially when we’re getting just one a game. We have to have more bullets to our gun, and right now we’re working on that.”

Jordan Leopold took part in today's morning skate, but Rolston said he’s still not fully recovered from an upper body injury that has kept him out of the past three games… Rolston also said they are still waiting for final test results on Alexander Sulzer before he can give a timetable for his return. Sulzer suffered an undisclosed lower body injury against the Islanders last Saturday, but a significant amount of swelling in the area of the injury has prevented proper evaluation.